PROVIDENCE — Over howls of protest from Rhode Island's municipal leaders, the House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a two-bill package mandating that cities and towns pay overtime to firefighters who average more than 42 hours in a workweek, as opposed to the 53-hour-a-week federal O.T. threshold.
The largely party-line vote was 62-9 in a state that regularly tops the national charts in its cost of firefighting services, and it followed days of protests by mayors and town managers across the state, including Warwick Mayor Joseph J. Solomon whose son, Democratic Rep. Joseph J. Solomon Jr. of Warwick, voted for the bill.
Only one Democrat — Rep. Lauren Carson of Newport — broke ranks and voted against the legislation that House Majority Whip John "Jay" Edwards said he introduced at House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello's request. Only one Republican voted for the legislation: Rep. Jack Lyle of Lincoln.
Supporters said the legislation provides firefighters with overtime rights available to everyone else in the workforce. Opponents argued strenuously against legislative intervention in city and town contract negotiations, including the three fire districts in negotiations now that have not already adopted the 42-hour O.T. standard: North Kingstown, Tiverton and the Central Coventry Fire District which anticipates the legislation will cost $720,000 more annually.
"We shouldn't stack the deck [on] one side," said Republican Rep. George Nardone of Coventry an hour or so after Fred Gralinski, president of the Central Coventry Fire District board of directors, issued a blistering statement about the imminent vote that said, in part:
"These bills leave the local voters to pick up the tab while the politicians meet at the Capital Grille and congratulate themselves on a job well done."
For his part, Nardone said: "You shouldn't take away these [negotiating] tools from any municipality.... It has the potential to raise our fire district tax about 30 percent."
Retired firefighter Michael Morin, D-Woonsocket, led the floor fight for the overtime mandate that the state's firefighter unions — which are major contributors to state lawmakers — have been seeking for years.
"If you think cities and towns negotiate fairly, I have some stock in a video-game company you can buy. They don't ... It's a fact. I've lived it first-hand. I was a firefighter for 31 years ... This is nothing more than an attack on firefighters and our labor," Morin said of those raising arguments against the legislation.
Responding, Republican Rep. Brian Newberry of North Smithfield said "I don't want to hear that I and others who do not support this legislation are anti-union or don't like firefighters ... If you believe in unions, the cornerstone of unionism is collective bargaining ... I do know this: we are putting a thumb on the scale here.
"We are consciously making a decision to support a specific union in ongoing negotiations in various cities and towns," Newberry said. "And by doing that, we are taking away a tool from our cities and towns ... If the firefighters don't like [their work shifts] they don't have to accept it. They can negotiate for something else. And if they don't' accept this, maybe they have to give concessions on something else — or if they do accept it, they'll get concessions elsewhere ... and if it's a terrible idea, they can make the case in binding arbitration."
"I don't blame the firefighters' union for pushing this," Newberry said, but "I don't represent the firefighters ... I represent the people of North Smithfield and Burrillville."
House Majority Leader K. Joseph Shekarchi's rebuttal: "It's a fairness issue.... It's a respect issue ... [and] to me, it's a public safety issue as well. Do you want to be the person in need of a rescue service and have someone show up at your home ... after they have worked a 56-hour shift, or close to that? I know I don't."
"I am happy about the vote for ourselves and our families," said Paul Valletta Jr., president of the Cranston Firefighters Union.
"It really was just a fairness issue, and we are happy the representatives saw it as that. It really was not about contract negotiations and all the other stuff that was thrown into it. We are not better than anyone else in the state. We just want to be treated like everybody else," he said.
Conversing with firefighters nearby, Senate President Dominick Ruggerio gave this assessment of the bill: "I believed I signed it, am a cosponsor of [a Senate version of] it. I support it."
Asked when it might get a vote in Senate, Ruggerio said only that it would go through the normal hearing process.
Few interest groups have been more generous to Rhode Island lawmakers than the firefighters' lobby.
Since 2007, the R.I. State Association of Firefighters has logged more than $290,413 on political spending, with most of that money going to help state lawmakers win reelection and ward off challengers.
Newly released data indicates that firefighter overtime has raised fire protection costs by as much as 30 percent in some of the cities and towns that have already, on their own, moved to the new O.T. threshold the House approved.
Data compiled by the R.I. Division of Municipal Finance reflects a total of $30.3 million in overtime payments to firefighters in Fiscal Year 2017, in the 14 cities and towns that responded to the survey.
That included $4.6 million in overtime pay (26%) out of $17.3 million in overall payroll costs that year in Cranston; $2.7 million in overtime pay (30%) out of $9 million in Johnston; $1.1 million (19%) out of $5.7 million in West Warwick; $1.2 million in overtime pay (15%) out of $8.2 million in Woonsocket; and $13.2 million (34%) out of $39 million in Providence, which has hired 155 firefighters since.
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